


A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words and More Valuable Than a Thousand Dollars

by kawherp



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 14:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17123111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawherp/pseuds/kawherp
Summary: Set after Chapter 16 in The Blooming, Steve comes to a decision about Lulu and pays her a visit.





	A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words and More Valuable Than a Thousand Dollars

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Blooming](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16510529) by [BlueSimplicity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueSimplicity/pseuds/BlueSimplicity). 



> After reading chapter 16, Steve jumped into my brain and told me what happened and it became my headcanon. I resisted writing it down, but ended up giving in because he's a stubborn punk who won't leave well enough alone. BlueSimplicity graciously gave her blessing and urged me to share it. I hope you enjoy it, too!

 

He waited a week. A week to let his new knowledge and perspective sink into his skin. A week to see Bucky in a new light. A week to frantically sketch the flood of memories unleashed by his initial meeting with the Rodriguez family.

 

It was still early morning when he tucked the envelope under his arm, left Bucky a note. and knocked on the door.

 

"Where is Bucky?" With both her voice and body language, Josephine was trying for indifference as she greeted Steve. Her efforts only conveyed her concern.

 

"Sleeping in. He had a rough day yesterday but he is okay, I promise. He will text you if he can't come this afternoon."

 

"He needs to be here."

 

"He will if he can, mija," Lulu said coming to the door. "Get yourself to school."

 

"Si, Abuela."

 

Steve watched Josefina flounce away before turning his attention to Lulu.  "Will you take a walk with me? We can take my bike if you'd rather."

 

Lulu's eyes twinkled. "You will make Dorcas jealous, Steve.

 

"I'd take her for a spin if I could trust her to behave." His smile promised he was teasing. Mostly.

 

"Let's make her jealous."

 

 

****

 

Lulu said nothing when he drove them into a hidden corner of Green-Wood Cemetery, guiding the bike along one of the narrow paths that split off from the larger roads that crisscrossed the land. Steve shut off the engine, helped her off the bike and traded her helmet for a blanket he had packed in the saddlebag. In silence, he led her to the Barnes family graves.

 

There were no benches here, so he spread the blanket and offered his hand so Lulu could sit down. Only when they were seated did he pass her the envelope. "Bucky barely remembers his father, has no memory of his mother or sisters and has tried his best to let it go and make peace with it. Being mad about it would mean Hydra won, and he won't give them the satisfaction of taking more from him than they already did." Steve felt his voice break and he swallowed hard around the lump in his throat.

 

Lulu waited, holding the envelope unopened as she waited with infinite patience for him to collect himself and continue.

 

"I'd do anything for him, but there are plenty of things beyond my power.  You gave him back a family. I know you did it for your own reasons, but I'm still grateful beyond words. You all filled in a hole in his soul he couldn't remember, much less name. I thought you might like to know a little bit about them. Cause if Mr. and Mrs. Barnes over there could get up and come over, they'd fall to their knees in front of you and thank you with everything they have for loving their son and making him your son, too."

 

****

 

Lulu and tears were old friends. That was the nature of a life well lived. It didn't make it any easier to see through blurry eyes as she studied each drawing in the stack Steve had brought with him.

He was quiet, Bucky's Stevie. He sat beside her, forearms resting on crossed legs as he looked at the gravestones and Lulu looked at the pictures. As if the images weren't enough, the backs were covered in perfect script, telling the backstory, date, and location. Bucky holding his newborn sister. The Rogers and Barnes families sharing a meal. A scrawny, sickly boy finding friendship and comfort in sunshine fixed in human form. She read every word as Steve kept vigil. When she had finished, she put the pages back into the envelope and closed the flap.

 

"Those are for you to keep."

 

Lulu nodded, not surprised but still touched. Other mothers had baby books and photographs. Steve had given her one for the son who'd come to her as an adult.

 

"Is your mother Sarah buried here, too?"

 

Steve looked up, startled, then nodded.

 

"Then you'll take me there next, once I pay my respects to Señor and Señora Barnes."

 

*****

 

As Steve turned off a main path, she startled a bit at the monstrous monument that had the names of not only Captain America, but both his parents. It was too close to the road to mark a grave and was too large and hideous to be a directional sign.

 

"It was a compromise," Steve offered as he parked his bike once more.

 

"A compromise."

 

Steve offered his arm. Together they went to his parents' graves. There was a modest headstone, inscribed with their names and relevant dates. Below Joseph's name, it also read, ‘artist, husband, father, soldier.' Sarah, in turn, was remembered as a nurse, wife, and mother.

 

"After I put the plane down, someone got offended that all my parents had were the simplest markers you could get back then. I appreciate what they were trying to do, honest. But they're my parents. They had lives of their own. After they pulled me from the ice, I came to pay my respects and saw my own name staring at me with that tribute to them being Captain America's parents…"

 

Lulu watched, amused, as Steve fumbled for words. "You were flipping irritated that their final resting place was a tourist trap?"

 

Steve grinned. "Something like that. I told Green-Wood it made me ill to see my own name like that when I'm clearly still not ready to be planted. We agreed they'd move that marker someplace else and I'd take care of the replacement. Getting rid of that… thing… I figured it would come across as ungrateful. I usually come in from the other direction so I can avoid it. 

 

"What you chose is far more suited to the parents of Steve Rogers, Brooklyn Asshole."

 

"You're not wrong."

 

***

 

In time, the envelope of sketches grew thick. They simply appeared, tucked safely out of the way and waiting to be discovered after Steve and Bucky, or sometimes just Steve visited. She never spoke of them and Steve never asked. They weren't to that point yet, though perhaps that would come in time. For now, it was enough to receive the gifts of memories too precious to let go.

 

Rather than burden Bucky with glimpses of a life he struggled to remember, Steve had kept these memories to himself. Now though, he had an outlet, and at times, it overwhelmed Lulu with the things he'd remember. Stories of children growing up in a different time, glimpses of boys, barely men, sent off to die in war, and scenes from her own home when the two men visited and ate food at her increasingly-crowded round kitchen table were all preserved in pencil drawings that were more vivid than photographs. Steve gifted them to her for safekeeping, trusting her to hold them in her heart and let the stories of the past give new insight to the man she called her son.

 

 

And if Lulu had purchased an album, filled with archival quality document protectors, and carefully preserved the sketches Steve gifted her with, then that was her own business. After all, little Nina might one day want to know more about her Godfather and how he'd become the loving man they all adored. That was years away. For now, she accepted these gifts as the treasures they were. Mothers did like their baby books, even if they were assembled decades after the child had been born.

**Author's Note:**

> About Lulu's choice of "swear words." There is another word I agree Lulu would be more likely to use, based on the source material. Swap that word in as you see fit. I made the choice a long time ago not to use that word (and several others) in my own writing and I'm too stubborn to set that aside even though I agree Lulu would probably use it here. Sometimes, like Steve, I can be too stubborn for my own good and plant myself like a tree next to a tiny stream that doesn't care two whits about my silly declaration. I never said I was smart, just stubborn.


End file.
